COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 12, 2012) –The U.S. Women’s
National Sitting Team traveled to Shanghai in one of its last attempt at
practice before the 2012 London Paralympics.

Team USA, ranked second in the world will face No. 1 ranked China and No. 3
ranked Ukraine in three days of double-header exhibition matches, playing each
team once each day.

The U.S. held its own but unfortunately fell to both teams in hard-fought
battles.

In its first match on Thursday morning the U.S. fell to China in five sets,
25-18, 25-17, 25-27, 21-25, 15-13.

"This is a grueling schedule for us but we need high level matches in our
final preparations for London,” head coach Bill Hamiter said. “Even though we
don't often play two matches a day and never back to back the coaches wanted the
teams to get as much play as possible. I realize this isn't a best case scenario
but it will be good to see how our team responds.

In its second match of the day the U.S. fell to Ukraine, 17-25, 25-21, 25-20,
25-20.

"After the tough match against China I was happy to see us start out well
against Ukraine,” Heather Erickson said. “We lost energy and momentum in the
second set and couldn't seem to get it back. We have to play at a higher level
than this even when we are tired.

On Friday Team USA will play Ukraine at 11 a.m. (8 p.m. PST) and China at 1
p.m. (10 p.m. PST) and on Saturday they will conclude play against China at 11
a.m. (8 p.m. PST) and Ukraine at 3 p.m. (12:00 p.m. PST).